Attraction
by Loz06
Summary: LeoMargaret I could never sleep with you because you're too important. Margaret announces and Leo watches astounded...


Title: Attraction Author: Loz E-Mail: loz06@yahoo.com Rating: PG Category: Leo/Margaret Series: Stand-alone Spoilers: The 2 Bartlets. Archive (if applicable): The National Library http://westwingstories.com/library Feedback: The good, the bad and the very ugly it's all appreciated. Summary: "I could never sleep with you because you're too important." Margaret announces and Leo watches astounded Author's Notes: For Melissa because I don't say thankyou enough. She always reads and gets back to me straight away...and asks for more. Semi Challenge answer: http://www.lightstreampubs.com/tww/fanfic/ - Use the following line: "I could never sleep with you, you're too important. I could never sleep with you becuase ever time I sleep with a woman I screw something up." Disclaimers: I'd like to attract part ownership of the West Wing into my possession, but for now I admire from afar.  
  
*  
  
"Josh I'm going to stop you right here Ok." Leo says seriously, it's not that he wasn't enjoying the one sided conversation or that he was worried about hearing something he didn't want to, he just figured that Josh would realize it wasn't who he thought it was on the other side of the phone line before now and Leo had problems that needed to be solved.  
  
"Leo!" Josh says in the surprised reaction Leo had expected to receive.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Anybody else in the office?" Josh asks hesitantly.  
  
"Hey Josh." Margaret pipes up doing an outstanding job at keeping a straight face.  
  
"Hey Margaret." She can hear him on the other end swallowing deeply.  
  
"...Why don't you come into work." Margaret hears the end of Leo's instructions, her mind flying with scenarios. The sun was still yet to rise and when he'd rung her this morning and Margaret was sure her first question to him was what day it was. She was certain he'd replied it was the eighth day of the week and the rest from there was forgotten by her as she stepped into a warm shower.  
  
"Yeah." Josh agrees as Leo continues with what he's been doing the entire time.  
  
*  
  
Leo counts three rows of eight documents, spread across his office floor space that night. He watches Margaret, who has discarded her shoes and stockings and has allowed her blouse to creep un-tucked, reach out to place one document on top of another.  
  
Her hair is loose and flying past her line of sight, sighing she brushes it out of her way, inspecting the next piece of paper and deciding where it needs to go.  
  
"Lock down." He asks after watching her for a few more minutes.  
  
"Some problem at one of the border checks." She says without looking up.  
  
"Seems to be happening every other week." Leo mumbles, dropping the files from his last meeting for the day on his desk.  
  
"What is all that?" He asks after a moment, leaning back against his desk.  
  
"I don't remember." Margaret says pushing her hair back again.  
  
"Leave you to it then." Leo shrugs sliding into his chair.  
  
"You think he's sleeping with her?" Margaret asks conspiratorially, ending the comfortable silence between them.  
  
"Who?" Leo asks obliviously, continuing to work.  
  
"Josh, Amy Gardner." Margaret replies as if he should know, loosing herself in daydreams of power couples and their picture perfect lives.  
  
"I don't know and I don't want to know." Leo mutters dragging her back into reality.  
  
"I could never sleep with you because you're too important." Margaret announces and Leo watches astounded over the top of his glasses as she turns on her heels and exits his office without so much as an explanation, leaving his floor littered with paper.  
  
~*~  
  
Her comment flaws him and his attention is shifted from the CIA security paper in front of him, it remains unread as he leans back in his chair thinking. He's never really stopped to look at anything from Margaret's perspective. She is the engine room of his life basically; scheduling daily appointments, making sure his office doesn't disappear under a mountain of paperwork and making sure he's where he needs to be when he needs to be.  
  
And like any car engine he expects it to start of a morning and finish of an evening with nothing more than a protective covering overtop in reward, in Margaret's case it's her small office outside of his which, in another situation could just as easily be a card table outside in the elements.  
  
It's a sad fact of society that although she works conceivably just as hard as him day in day out, the job she does isn't as highly valued in society. And while Secretaries Day has sought to lift the profile and appreciation of the work done, it's still viewed as women's work and a dicey area when it comes to relationships.  
  
Blushing almost he wonders if Margaret has ever fantasized about kissing him in the office or... shuddering he stops himself from considering other things. He's seen something like that bring men to their knees and turn their lives upside down to shake all the other skeletons out of the closets.  
  
Compared to this Josh and Amy are a picnic and although the cynics will accuse Amy of trading sexual favors for key developments in her pet areas, Washington is a maze of connections and favors and those who live by the slogan 'It's not what you know it's who you know.'  
  
"Amy Gardner isn't Josh's secretary." Leo stands in the doorway that divides their two offices as Margaret gathers more for her piles.  
  
Margaret's initial reaction is to frown. "I know."  
  
"I'm just saying." Leo defends weakly.  
  
"Saying what Leo?" Margaret slam shut the cabinet.  
  
"Amy isn't Josh's assistant." Leo reminds her as she walks past him back into his office.  
  
"Donna's a friend of mine." Margaret says frowning at him.  
  
"Amy works..."  
  
"For the good of the sisterhood." Margaret finishes, sitting Indian style back down on the floor.  
  
"I'm just saying." Leo says closing the door behind him.  
  
"You don't know what you're saying Leo." Margaret mumbles when he's sitting behind his desk again.  
  
~*~  
  
Two paragraphs into the report and Leo can't remember the last line he read. He's thinking about important and how important screwed up one marriage and is threatening another.  
  
He wonders if Margaret has him on some sort of platform above her because of what he does. He knows it never fazed, more pissed Jenny the hours the job demanded. A fairer assessment might be the hours he wanted to put into the job.  
  
Then there's Jed and Abbey who up until recently have made it work, fractures starting to appear now and it doesn't come much more important than the President. 'Behind every man there's a great woman.' Leo smiles to himself thinking about the ditch digger story.  
  
He wonders about Josh and Amy and the advice he gave Josh indirectly, reminding him Jenny lived in his house. He wonders about Amy and pedestals because she was something Josh couldn't have before. There's probably more of a notch than a pedestal in that case.  
  
"It's just a job you know." Leo says looking up, as Margaret gets halfway through the pile.  
  
"What is?" Her head tilts to the side as she tries to come up to speed on the conversation.  
  
"This." He says allowing one hand to indicate across his expansive office.  
  
"With all due respect, it is your life Leo." Margaret says carefully.  
  
"In some respects." He corrects.  
  
"Some days you're here before sun up and you go home after sun down." Margaret observes.  
  
"Still...in a few short years I'll be out of this job." He shrugs.  
  
"It's still important to you, it is important." Margaret confirms.  
  
"Clothes don't always..." Leo starts.  
  
"Make the man...Regardless you're still too important." Margaret finishes.  
  
~*~  
  
Through the fourth hour of lock down as the piles of paperwork in front of Margaret continue to grow, Leo continues to think. He looks at Abbey, a successful doctor who married a successful politician, Toby who married and divorced a Congresswoman, Sam who almost married Lisa and Leo McGarry who married Jenny O'Brien from a well off family with a successful career of her own.  
  
He wonders who Margaret sees herself with, is it the lower middle rung accountant of an international corporation based here in D.C. or is it someone like Leo whose accomplishments will forever overshadow hers in some peoples eyes.  
  
The validity of the statement 'we marry our own stock' sticks with him and he finds himself pondering does it really work when the uptown boy marries the downtown girl and visa versa. Fleetingly he entertains the idea of being married to Margaret, getting up, working and going to bed at night with her. It isn't like it would be the first time someone has married his or her secretary.  
  
Their conversation eats at Leo right through the President coming in to say goodnight and the fifth hour of lockdown. "I couldn't sleep with you because you're my assistant." He states out of nowhere pushing aside some of the documents to sit next to Margaret.  
  
"Leo." She cries instantly loosing her place and control of the system she had organized as he shuffles piles on top of one another so he can sit next to her.  
  
"How did we get started on this?" He asks almost rhetorically, none the less not getting a reply from Margaret. "You asked about Josh and Amy." He remembers.  
  
"I couldn't sleep with you because you're too important and you couldn't sleep with me because I'm your assistant." Margaret surmises grabbing the paper he moved she's determined to get the system back in order.  
  
"I told you it's just a job." He repeated loosening and pulling his tie off.  
  
Gently she places the paper in her hands down in front of her, tilting her head to the side her voice is soft and sincere. Before her mouth opens she lets her hand rest barely on his forearm.  
  
"I didn't mean important your job. I meant important, you're too important to me Leo."  
  
She treads lightly with her bare feet across the room to gather the next lot of filing, not knowing her words have just touched him deeply  
  
~*~  
  
Sliding the filing drawer shut Margaret turns to come face to face with Leo. Jumping she shrieks quietly, placing her hand over her heart willing it to come down from its elevated beating.  
  
"Sorry." Leo apologizes before Margaret passes him.  
  
"You don't have anything that needs doing?" Margaret asks stepping over her work to sit down again.  
  
"Yes and no." He answers sitting next to her again. This time she notices his shirt un-tucked on one side and his shoes missing.  
  
"I think Josh is still here." She offers reaching to place a budget related report in front of him.  
  
"I could never sleep with you, I could never sleep with you because every time I sleep with a woman I screw something up and I wouldn't want to do that to you." His voice is even and soft like hers.  
  
Margaret turns to look at him from where she is stretched over in front of him, one hand balancing her in her position to put a position paper of Toby's in place. He shows brief confusion as she moves towards him, brushing her lips across her cheek.  
  
"Thank you." She says in an almost whisper, returning to her sitting position and the long overdue reorganization of the filing system.  
  
*  
  
"What is with this lock down?" Leo asks turning from where he's been staring out the window.  
  
"Someone broke through one of the check points." Margaret informs him.  
  
"So?" Leo sighs.  
  
"They're being chased in this direction, it'll be all over the television." Margaret adds.  
  
"No thanks." Leo replies swinging back around to stare out the window again.  
  
Having finished the filing system she's happy with Margaret starts packing up the files and putting them newly organized into the cabinet.  
  
"Josh and Amy worked together before dating." Leo speaks up as he meanders around the room having lost interest in the window.  
  
"Not for very long." Margaret calls from her office as she shuts the last of the files away and Leo falls to sit on the floor, his back against his couch.  
  
Leo shrugs non-committingly to her comment as she sits next to him.  
  
"Do you think men and women can be friends or work together and never cross the line into a relationship?" Margaret asks breaking the moment's silence.  
  
"Well you and I...we've always worked together..." Leo broaches hesitantly.  
  
"We've always been friends and nothing else." Margaret replies sensing uncomfortability in the room she wishes she hadn't bought the topic up.  
  
"There's no attraction..." Margaret's head snaps sideways to look at him when he says attraction. "Between us." Leo finishes, swallowing as they stare across at each other, he surprises himself when he inches his lips towards hers and Margaret follows.  
  
The kiss starts out tentative, uncertain and gentle, progressing to searing as their tongues duel, hands and arms wrapped around each other.  
  
Leo breaks, not wanting to go any further in the office; Margaret's head follows him holding onto the kiss before it registers what has just happened and how far she just indicated she'd go within the walls of the Chief of Staff's Office.  
  
"See nothing." Leo's voice trembles as he hurriedly picks himself up off the floor to go and stare out the window again.  
  
On opposite sides of the office both remain in silence, waiting for the other to say something.  
  
"Lock down's over." Josh says after knocking quietly at the door, surveying the office's two occupants.  
  
"This is your fault." Margaret whispers brushing past Josh, grabbing her things and escaping the building.  
  
*~*  
  
Dressed in casual pants and shirt, the short man with the rain soaked sandy hair waits after knocking on apartment five.  
  
He can hear the footsteps approaching and he knows who will open the door to him.  
  
"I didn't know if I should come around..." He falters, his eyes traveling over the damp red hair, the fresh face and navy pajamas.  
  
"There's no attraction between us." She says pressing her lips to his and pulling him inside  
  
"Right." He agrees as she slams the door behind them.  
  
*~* 


End file.
